Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Mid Week Tease - Upcoming Release - Take the Reins

Welcome to the Weird, the Wild, & the Wicked for a new year of Mid Week Tease hosted by Sandra Bunino. It will release on Friday this week!!

Authors: this is a great opportunity to spotlight a few lines or even a paragraph or two from a new release or backlisted title. Readers: you get to sample some delicious snippets! We’ll do our best to tease, titillate and tantalize you into the weekend.
Today I'm offering snippets from Take the Reins, a fantasy romance, and Book 1 in the Rifts series. Bethany Stanton is just trying to figure out how to circumvent her father's schemes when it comes to her own life. She wasn't planning on having an adventure.

Bethany had never run from anything in
her life. Not that she’d get far. A sitting senator’s prize daughter didn’t
just disappear. He’d have the Alphabet Agencies after her faster than anyone
could spell FBI. I guess it helps that
he’s on several of those secret government committees.

Bethany stopped in the center of the site
on a slightly raised hexagonal stone and dropped her gaze to her feet, trying
to find a way out. I’m too young to get
married. She grimaced at the memory of her grandmother telling her no good
girl waited until she’d become a spinster. Thirty
isn’t spinsterhood. Besides, her father’s choices of men tended to be those
who’d benefit him, not her. Hell, I don’t
even get the chance to love anyone before I’m tied down.

The stone beneath her feet glowed softly
in the fading evening light and Bethany frowned, crouching to get a better
look. Swirls of sparkles, like faerie dust, puffed out of the central stone,
filling the air with flashing illumination. Bethany jerked her head up as the glittering
light coalesced and flowed along grooved lines on the floor from each corner of
the dig, engulfing her in its radiance.

What the—

The wind kicked up, whirling the
brilliance around her like a cyclone. Bethany dropped to her butt and threw her
hands over her eyes, ducking her head. The rush of air stole her breath and
dried her throat, rising to a screaming pitch. A whinny hit her ears and she
remembered Killian tied outside the circle.

Oh, God, Killian! She tried to open her
eyes and crawl for the edge of the site, but the air currents buffeted her,
holding her in the center. Dust and glitter clogged her nose and she coughed
around the scents of horse, fresh cut grass, and…Honeysuckle?

Blowing dirt whirled in a choking dance
just beyond her toes and she hunkered down, coughing harder. She hoped Killian
survived the strange dust storm as she covered her nose and mouth with the
tails of her shirt. The wind howled around her, flinging stinging particles
against her skin.

Bethany ducked her head, rubbing the
sight back into her bedazzled eyes. Wracking coughs rattled her chest from all
the swirling debris in the air. Voices, some chanting, some—whinnying?—rose
in a crescendo and her hacking added a treble beat to the cacophony.

Then something popped and the wind died
down. Bethany’s coughs slowed and she prayed she’d be able to breathe clean air
soon. Her eyes watered with all the dust, but she raised her head and scrubbed
her face, hoping to clear her vision.

The archaeological site sparkled around
her like the dying remnants of a fireworks display. Through the foggy air and
flickering lights, she caught movement. Several large bodies shifted fluidly,
as if she’d encountered an entire herd of wild horses. The chanting had changed
into shouts of surprise and anger.

Aw hell, that sounds serious.

Squinting against the dust, she searched
for a place to hide. Where had all the horses come from? Had her father
actually sent the cavalry after her?
To hell with that. Bethany crawled toward the maple where she’d left Killian,
hoping the dirt and dust would obscure her identity. If she could get to her
horse, she’d blend in with the others and no one would notice her riding away.

Protecting her eyes from flying debris,
she scanned the sky looking for the spreading branches of the maple above the
cloudy air. She scrambled the last few feet, searching for the only horse legs
not moving. She’d almost reached the edge of the site when a pair of striped
hooves stopped in front of her.

Bethany froze and looked up, way, way up,
into the scowling face of a fierce man. Wait, how’d she miss the horse’s head?
The butt of a spear hit the ground before her hands and she jerked back,
falling to her ass again. So much for being a lady. Her mother would've been
appalled.

The dust cleared a little more and she
got a good look at the man mounted before her. Except he wasn’t mounted. The
horse’s shoulders and chest sprouted from where his human legs should be, and
the spot where his man parts should hang…

“Oh
lordy, I don’t think I’m in Kentucky anymore.”

The centaur’s scowl only deepened. He
bent at what would be a human waist, leaning on his spear and stuck his nose no
more than six inches from hers.

"What are you?”

Here's the blurb to Take the Reins, available everywhere Friday, December 12, 2014:

Social change is normal for a senator’s daughter, but affecting
gender politics in centaurs wasn’t on Bethany’s agenda.

All Bethany Stanton needed was time away to think. She never imagined a walk
with her horse might lead her so far from home. When she steps through a rift
between worlds at an old archaeological site, she realizes she has bigger
problems than marriage to the man of her nightmares. Like a herd of centaurs
with distressing views on gender equality and “mythical” humans.

As part of the Supernatural Anomalies Investigative Field Unit, Major Stephen
“Mack” McMacken has seen and done more weird stuff than written in a science
fiction novel. When called in to track down a U.S. Senator’s missing daughter,
Mack figures it’s more a case of runaway rich girl than supernatural mystery. Until
his team finds the portal and he’s nearly torched by a dying phoenix.

In a world ruled by mythical beasts, Mack and Bethany find themselves on trial
for endangering the centaur village. With the only escape route they know gone,
working together to establish their innocence might prove easier than avoiding
seductive Sirens and ravenous native beasts.

And then there’s the not-so-simple matter of finding a way back home…

Thanks for stopping by and happy reading. If you want to read more from other authors, click the link and enjoy...

Hi Siobhan, loved the "sending the cavalry" line. Great humor and action here. I was so into both their reactions there at the very end that I couldn't tell who said that last line. I think there's a good case for both of them being curious about the other. :)

About Me

Siobhan Muir lives in Cheyenne, Wyoming, with her husband, two
daughters, and a vegetarian cat she swears is a shape-shifter, though he's
never shifted when she can see him.

Siobhan writes kick-ass adventure with hot sex for men and women
to enjoy. She believes in happily ever after, redemption, and communication,
all of which you will find in her paranormal romance stories.